Haven't posted in a while, but thought you guys could help. I enjoy Champagne but, being a bit of a rube, I can't pronounce any of the names. Can anyone please tell me how to pronounce Taittinger, Roederer, and Bollinger?

Once, while standing in an airport line, a friend and I discussed our sparkling wine favorites. A gentleman behind us listened intently to our conversation until he could take it no longer. He tapped me on the shoulder and said, in a French accent, the names are "Tay-tonj-aire," "Red-er-rare," "Bo-yinj-aire," "Mo-ettttt," "Pole Ro-jay," and on and on.

I would have smacked him if his girlfriend wasn't so pretty; I tried to steal her away on the plane, but the guy, I discovered, was rich. He was a member of one of the families that owned a sparkling house--cannot remember which one. Perhaps it was a small house in the "Sham-pain" region, which he called, "Sham-panya."

It's Shah(n)- pahn- yuh, baby. & Yes do use that "T" on the end of Jouet, the vice-pres of the company did when we had dinner with him at the Maizon. (Oh, what a night) I mostly use our "American" pronunciations as most folks I meet wouldn't know what the h#*@ I was saying otherwise. But it's very cool/fun to learn some wine-French, German, Italian etc... Great for parties/dates/or (not any of us of course) snobby wine folks. Just don't try using French enunciation's for American wines, ex: St. Supry or Ste. Michelle, cuz that's just plain goofy! (Bonus vocab: Mumms is Moom(s) not Mums (like mom in England), as it is a German family name. And man is it hard to get used to hearing and saying it!)

You know (and the French will point it out to you if you don't) that French is a language of almost infinite depth and finesse. For instance, you would have to sit at an outdoor cafe smoking Galoise and drinking mediocre CÃ´te du Rhone for a decade to get the subtle interpretation of the silent letters (some of which are actually invisible!) in MoÃ«t, Mumms, PJ and Taittinger that signify that they are, in fact, "industrial subdivisions of LMVH, Seagrams (which in turn is now owned by a utility company!) and Kobrand (respectively) charged with gaining market share over any other consideration, including quality".

I studied 4 years of French in school, went to France and met a girl I fell head over heels for. One romantic night, entering her apt., I got up the nerve to say to her......
"Je t'adore" ... "Shut it your self!" she exclaimed. She threw me out and I never saw her again! To hell with that language! [img]http://www.wines.com/ubb2/tongue.gif[/img]

Stay the courase Drew-Boogs. I`ve had to write my order on napkins in some of those hoity-toity restaurants because the waiters wouldn`t stop laughing about my Okla pronounces of them funny words. winoweenie